Amazon overtakes Google in YouGov's BrandIndex

Search engine giant Google has been overtaken by Amazon in a ranking of Britain's favourite brands.

The ranking, compiled by YouGov, lists the top 20 brands from a pool of more than 800.

Following a number of privacy scandals, Google - the focus of most SEO efforts - has been pushed into second place on YouGov's BrandIndex, with the market research firm stating that Google's popularity had "started to wane."

The two American firms were followed by BBC's iPlayer - a service that allows users to catch up with the programming broadcast by the BBC - high street retailer Marks & Spencer, and the broadcaster itself.

YouGov's BrandIndex was compiled by using survey results featuring the opinions of 2,000 participants on six attributes - customer satisfaction, general impression, recommendation, quality, value and corporate recommendation.

Commenting on the results, YouGov's associate director, Sarah Murphy, stated: "BBC iPlayer overtaking M&S in the top three demonstrates the great amount that the broadcaster has delivered in the last year, whilst dealing with reduced funding - a great achievement.

"Despite M&S falling out of the top three, they still have shown great resilience in a sector which has experienced significant declines over the last year. Google's decline is statistically significant and is driven by all the brand measures that comprise the Index score - this is certainly a brand to watch over the next six months," she added.

The top ten was rounded out by department store John Lewis, technology giant Sony, pharmacy Boots and chocolatiers Cadbury.